The Russians, however, had made a much earlier acquaintance with the Chukches; for during their conquest of Siberia they came in contact with this race before the middle of the seventeenth century. A company of hunters in 1646 sailed down the Kolyma river to the Polar Sea. East of the Kolyma they fell in with the Chukches, with whom they dealt in this way they laid down their goods on the beach and then retired, on which the Chukches came thither, took the goods, and laid furs, walrus tusks, or carvings in walrus ivory, in their place.[273] How such journeys were repeated and finally led to the circumnavigation of the north-easternmost promontory of Asia belongs to a following chapter.
During these journeys the Russians often came in contact with the tribe which inhabited the north-eastern part of Asia, a contact which in general was not of a friendly nature. The bold hunters who contributed powerfully to the conquest of Siberia, and who even at their own hand entered into conflicts with whole armies from the heavenly empire, appear not to have behaved well when confronted with the warriors of the Chukch race. Even the attempts that were made with professional soldiers to conquer the land of the Chukches were without result, less however, perhaps, on account of the armed opposition which the Chukches made than from the nature of the country and the impossibility of even a small body of troops supporting themselves. The following may be quoted as examples of these campaigns which throw light upon the former disposition and mode of life of this tribe.
In 1701 some Yukagires who were tributary to Russia determined to make an attack on the Chukches, and requested from the commandant at Anadyrsk assistance against these enemies. A body of troops numbering twenty-four Russians and 110 Yukagires, was accordingly sent on a campaign along the coast from Anadyrsk to Chukotskojnos. By the way they fell in with thirteen tents, inhabited by Chukches who owned no reindeer. The inhabitants were required to submit and pay tribute. This the Chukches refused to do, on which the Russians killed most of the men and took the women and children prisoners. The men who were not cut down killed one another, preferring death to the loss of freedom. Some days after there was another fight with 300 Chukches, which, however, was so unfortunate for the latter that 200 are said to have fallen. The rest fled, but returned next day with a force ten times as strong, which finally compelled the Russo-Yukagnean troop to return with their object unaccomplished.
A similar campaign on a small scale was undertaken in 1711, but with the same issue. On a demand for tribute the Chukches answered: "the Russians have before come to us to demand tribute and hostages, but this we have refused to give, and thus we also intend to do in future."[274]
About fifteen years after this resultless campaign the Cossack colonel AFFANASSEJ SCHESTAKOV proposed to the Government again to subdue this obstinate race, intending also to go over to the American side, yet known only by report, in order to render the races living there tributary to the Russians. The proposal was accepted. A mate, JACOB HENS, a land-measurer, MICHAEL GVOSDEV, an ore-tester, HERDEBOL, and ten sailors were ordered by the Admiralty to accompany the expedition. At Yekaterinenburg Schestakov was provided with some small cannon and mortars with ammunition, and at Tobolsk with 400 Cossacks. In consequence of a great number of misfortunes, among them shipwreck in the sea of Okotsk, there stood however but a small portion of this force at his disposal when he began his campaign by marching into the country from the bottom of Penschina Bay. This campaign too was exceedingly unfortunate. After only a few days' march he came unexpectedly on a large body of Chukches, who themselves had gone to war with the Koryäks. A fight took place on the 25th/14th March, 1730, in which Schestakov himself fell, hit by an arrow, and his followers were killed or put to flight.
Among those who were ordered to accompany Schestakov in this unfortunate campaign was Captain DMITRI PAULUTSKI. Under his command a new campaign was undertaken against the Chukches With a force of 215 Russians, 160 Cossacks and 60 Yukagires, Paulutski left Anadyrsk on the 23rd/12th March, 1731, and marched east of the sources of the Anadyr to the Polar Sea, which was only reached after two mouths' march. Then he went along the coast, partly by land, partly on the ice, to the eastward. After fourteen days he fell in with a large Chukch army, and having in vain summoned it to surrender, he delivered a blow on the 18/7th June, and obtained a complete victory over the enemy. During the continuation of the campaign along the coast he was compelled to fight on two other occasions, one on the 11th July/30th June and the other on the 26/11th July, at Chukotskojnos itself, over which promontory he wished to march to the mouth of the Anadyr. In both cases the victory lay with the Russians, who, according to Müller's account based on the official documents, in all three engagements lost only three Cossacks, one Yukagire and five Koryäks. But notwithstanding all these defeats the Chukches refused to submit and pay tribute to the Russians, on which account the only gain of the campaign was the honour of avenging Schestakov's defeat and of marching in triumph over Chukotskojnos. For this, ten days were required. On the promontory, hills of considerable height had to be passed. It appears as if Paulutski followed the shore of Kolyutschin Bay to the south, and then marched over the tongue of land which separates this bay from Anadyr Bay, or to express it otherwise, which unites the Chukch peninsula to the mainland of Siberia.
Many mistakes in comprehending the accounts of old travels to these regions have arisen from our ignorance of the great southern extension of Kolyutschin Bay, and from the same name being frequently used to distinguish different places on the coasts of Siberia. Thus we find on the map by A. ARROW-SMITH annexed to Sauer's account of Billings' travels a Seidze Kamen on the south side of Chukch peninsula, and it was perhaps just this Seidze Kamen, known and so named by the dwellers on the Anadyr, that is mentioned in Müller's account of Paulutski's campaign.
On the 1st Nov./21st Oct. Paulutski returned to Anadyrsk, crowned with victory indeed, but without having brought his adversaries to lasting submission. No new attempt was made to induce the Chukches to submit, perhaps because Paulutski's campaign had rendered it evident that it was easier to win victories over the Chukches than to subdue them, and that the whole treasures of walrus tusks and skins belonging to the tribe would scarcely suffice to pay the expenses of the most inconsiderable campaign.
Perhaps too the accounts of Paulutski's victories may not be quite correct, at least the old repute of Chukches as a brave and savage race remained undiminished. Thus we read in a note already quoted at page 110 of the Histoire généalogique des Tartares [275] "The north-eastern part of Asia is inhabited by two allied races, Tzuktzchi and Tzchalatzki, and south of them on the Eastern Ocean by a third, called Olutorski. They are the most savage tribe in the whole north of Asia, and will have nothing to do with the Russians, whom they inhumanly kill when they fall in with them, and when any of them fall into the hands of the Russians they kill themselves". On the map of LOTTERUS (1765) the Chukch Peninsula is coloured in a way differing from Russian Siberia, and there is the following inscription Tjukzchi natio ferocissima et bellicosa Russorum inimica, qui capti se invicem interficiunt. In 1777 GEORGIUS says in his Beschreibung aller Nationen des Russischen Reichs (part ii., p. 350) of the Chukches "They are more savage, coarse, proud, refractory, thievish, false, and revengeful, than the neighbouring nomads the Koryäks. They are as bad and dangerous as the Tunguses are friendly. Twenty Chukches will beat fifty Koryäks. The Ostrogs (fortified places) lying in the neighbourhood of their country are even in continual fear of them, and cost so much that the Government has recently withdrawn the oldest Russian settlement in those regions, Anadyrsk". Other statements to the same effect might be quoted, and even in our day the Chukches are, with or without justification, known in Siberia for stubbornness, courage, and love of freedom.
But what violence could not effect has been completely accomplished in a peaceful way.[276] The Chukches indeed do not pay any other taxes than some small market tolls, but a very active traffic is now carried on between them and the Russians, and many travellers have without inconvenience traversed their country, or have sailed along its pretty thickly inhabited coast.